A system and method for reduced forwarding information storage includes extracting an organizationally unique identifier (OUI) and a MAC part from a MAC address, determining whether information associated with the OUI is stored in an OUI table, determining an OUI index based on the information associated with the OUI and the OUI table when the OUI is stored in the OUI table, generating the OUI index based on the information associated with the OUI when the OUI is not stored in the OUI table, forming a forwarding information table entry including information associated with the OUI index and information associated with the MAC part, and inserting the forwarding information table entry into a forwarding information table.